Insights into the application of new eco-friendly drilling fluid additive to improve the fluid properties in water-based drilling fluid systems

摘要

The objective of this work is to develop an eco-friendly drilling fluid additive to regulate filtrate and mud cake thickness as well as to assess other drilling fluid properties. The biodegradable Grass Powder (GP) was selected as a fibrous fluid-loss agent to be compared with the conventional chemical additive (starch). Fluid samples including GP and starch additives were prepared in various concentrations to examine the effect of concentration variation on the reference fluid. The effects of introducing different concentrations of GP and starch on the physical and chemical properties of the drilling fluid (e.g. mud weight (MW), plastic viscosity (PV), yield point (YP), the filtration characteristics, rheological properties, calcium content (Ca++), solid content (SC), NaCl concentration, and pH) were evaluated. The evaluation included conducting lab experiments with full-set measurements following the specifications of the American Petroleum Institute (API).